2nl SNAP Blind battle TP OTF

[DJAbacus]

Villain unknown

I feel I may not be ahead of Villains range but have the odds to call OTF and OTT and plan to call OTR with 50% pot bet, but I spike a 4 and decide to raise as expecting calls from worse hands such a Ax and 88+.

888 Poker - $0.02 NL (6 max) FAST - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

BTN: $2.58
SB: $3.54
Hero (BB): $2.00
UTG: $1.92
MP: $2.42
CO: $2.68

SB posts SB $0.01, Hero posts BB $0.02

Pre Flop: (pot: $0.03) Hero has 4 A

fold, fold, fold, fold, SB raises to $0.06, Hero calls $0.04

Flop: ($0.12, 2 players) 3 A 3
SB bets $0.06, Hero calls $0.06

Turn: ($0.24, 2 players) J
SB bets $0.12, Hero calls $0.12

River: ($0.48, 2 players) 4
SB bets $0.36, Hero raises to $1.06

[OngBonga]

Fold pre.

[DJAbacus]

Fold pre.

I'm calling quite wide vs raise from SB as IP and can put pressure on if get checked to OTF.

What range would you defend the BB with here?

[Savy]

Flatting pre is fine if people are opening wide and playing poorly in comparison to you.

can put pressure on if get checked to OTF

This is ok thinking but you need to be thinking how often does villain c-bet? Will he fold if you do bet?

Flop is a call as we have position and board is dry meaning we usually get a cheap showdown as people aren't betting 3 streets with trash for the most part, turn people aren't betting two streets with stuff you beat so it's a pretty clear fold, don't see the positives to anything else.

River raise is probably fine as we expect him to snap like AT+, have little to no sets and seeing some KK or whatever wouldn't surprise me too much.

[DJAbacus]

turn people aren't betting two streets with stuff you beat so it's a pretty clear fold, don't see the positives to anything else.

Expecting Villain to be betting sometimes with 88-KK. Fish at 2nl SNAP love their PP. I would say it's probably a marginal fold still though. I haven't run this through Flopzilla and it would be interesting to see what our equity is if we give 88-KK a 50% weighting as we don't expect them to turn up as much as Ax hands.

[OngBonga]

I'm calling quite wide vs raise from SB as IP and can put pressure on if get checked to OTF.

What range would you defend the BB with here?

I'd sooner have 43s here than A4o. I assume SNAP is 888's zoom, right? I tend to consider sb opening ranges in zoom to be stronger than a regular cash table range, simply because people have a fast fold option and are much more likely to quickly throw away marginal stuff like K9o that they might otherwise have opened. Axo is generally not in my defending range here because I don't expect to win a large pot when I hit a clean ace, but I'll pay off two maybe three streets when we both hit an ace. Implied odds suck relative to reverse implied odds. Not a great spot. If you insist on playing this, I think 3b is better.

[OngBonga]

I'm think I'm flatting this river bet too, unless I know he's calling an ace with no kicker. Hoping for calls from 88+ is very optimstic.

[MadMojoMonkey]

43s is a trash hand, and should not be played unless 4-handed or shorter... if 4-handed.
It's a crap hand that doesn't even hit as many straights as 45s.
Same goes for 32s and 42s

A4o, on the other hand is a fine hand to steal with, but I wouldn't defend with it (unless shorter than 6-handed). Ong is right about the implied odds being crap. Villain isn't going to pay off much when he sees the A hit the board (when it does) and you are not suited to make the flushes, and when you catch a straight draw, it's almost always a gutshot.
In short, your actual equity will be hard to draw value from, and your draw equity when you miss will likely be thin.

If SB flats, then opening with A4o makes sense. Doing so with 43s does not.
43s
This is not good advice for small stakes players.

[DJAbacus]

I steal BB from SB with any two, except vs known aggressive players, and since I've started doing that last 2k hands I'm actually winning from SB.

I'm also comfortable with my stealing range from Btn which is about 50%. Any two vs known nits/regs.

One thing, I'm still not nailed down yet is a good BB defending range.

I'm really talking vs unknowns here. Any suggestions?

[The Bean Counter]

Pls don't fold a4o or 43s bvb, unless villain is much stronger player than hero, or an uber nit.

[OngBonga]

A4o is trash. What am I planning to do with A4o? How many flops can I raise? 34s is much more likely to flop a draw that I can raise. It's also more likely to flop a monster. And 34s doesn't flop top pair hands that at best are bluff catchers, so it's hard to pay off 2+ streets when it's beat.

I'm not intending to suggest 34s is a good hand, it's just better than A4o, at least when calling a raise.

[DJAbacus]

A4o is trash. What am I planning to do with A4o? How many flops can I raise? 34s is much more likely to flop a draw that I can raise. It's also more likely to flop a monster. And 34s doesn't flop top pair hands that at best are bluff catchers, so it's hard to pay off 2+ streets when it's beat.

I'm not intending to suggest 34s is a good hand, it's just better than A4o, at least when calling a raise.

Its true that, I would never call in BB vs CO or even BTN with A4o. I would call with 43s if I have 20 to 1 odds hoping to flop a draw or a monster as you say.

I think I need to tighten up vs unknown as they are likely fish who are likely to call or bet the flop whatever.

[OngBonga]

I don't think that the call pre flop is going to be a loser if you're playing post flop close to optimal. A4 is obviously ahead of villain's range, both here and when villain is button or cutoff. But being ahead is only half the battle. We need to realise our equity, and too often A4o is just ace high. How often are we folding ace high when it's good? I would think we're folding the best hand post flop often enough that we lose the range advantage we had pre flop. This is why I think 3b is better than call... even though his range might beat A4o when he continues, we can blow lots of his better Ax and pairs out by cbetting flop. Now he loses his pre flop range advantage.

But I'd just fold pre because at low stakes zoom I'm playing a tight range, and here I think one occasional mistake post flop is all it takes to wipe out my equity and turn this into a loser. I'd also fold 34s as default, but I'll wager than I've called 34s more times than A4o in these spots.

[spoonitnow]

43s is much, much worse than A4o in this situation, and it's not even remotely close. I don't even know how this is a discussion. High card value is worth a lot more here because Villain's range is so wide. This means our top pair is almost always going to be good (and we're going to pick off continuation bets when we hit like crazy giving us decent implied odds), and the "nightmare" scenario where we both have aces rarely happens, and we rarely stack off when it does happen, so the reverse implied odds angle is next to nil.

[OngBonga]

Well I'm not going to argue with spoon when it comes to poker, he's right and I'm wrong. I stand corrected. Still, I find myself in more awkward spots with A4o than I do 34s, but no doubt that's a reflection of how badly I'm playing ace rag.

[spoonitnow]

Well I'm not going to argue with spoon when it comes to poker, he's right and I'm wrong. I stand corrected. Still, I find myself in more awkward spots with A4o than I do 34s, but no doubt that's a reflection of how badly I'm playing ace rag.

Almost 100% of the time that people hold that sort of opinion, it's because they're afraid of fucking up when they hit the ace. A quick and easy starting point that can act as the cure for that is to avoid over-playing it like the plague and use it primarily to pick off continuation bets and to maybe get one other street of value against a lower pair somewhere down the line.